1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a binding band for a wire harness diverging portion (hereinafter called xe2x80x9cthe binding bandxe2x80x9d) including a trunk portion formed by gathering wire harnesses and a branch portion diverging from the trunk portion, which is used for keeping the wire harness diverging portion in a binding state. More particularly, it relates to the binding band, which has a band body, branch portions branching from the band body, and a lock portion for latching the band body to the branch portions through engagement so as to prevent the band body from slipping.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Such kind of a binding band for a wire harness diverging portion is well known in Japanese Utility Model Application Laying-open Nos. 63-97279 and 6-65682. In the binding band, a band body branches off from the vicinity of a lock portion having a piercing-engagement hole, in a two-forked state, thereby resulting in the extended two-rows band bodies, and the band body passes through the piercing-engagement hole of the lock portion, so that the band body is stopped in an engaged state, so as to prevent it from slipping off. When the wire harness diverging portion is kept in a binding state by means of the binding band, a branch portion of the wire harness diverging portion is inserted into a portion between the two-rows band bodies, the two-rows band bodies are wound around the trunk portion of the wire harness diverging portion, and the respective tips of the two-rows band bodies are overlapped with each other in the piercing-engagement hole of the lock portion (shown in Japanese Utility Model Application Laying-open No. 63-97279) or they are arranged in two rows in the piercing-engagement hole of the lock portion (shown in Japanese Utility Model Application Laying-open No. 6-65682), whereby they are penetrated therein, so as to stop the band body by connecting the branch portion so as to prevent the band body from slipping off.
In the well-known binding band for a wire harness diverging portion, the two-rows band bodies must pierce respectively the piercing-engagement hole of the lock portion, and a piercing operation is extremely troublesome. This has caused decrease of an operation efficiency for binding a wire harness diverging portion.
The present invention has been conducted in view of the above-discussed circumstances and problems.
An object of the present invention is to improve a band piercing operation for making the band body pierce a piercing-engagement hole of the lock portion.
Another object of the present invention is to improve a binding operation efficiency in binding the wire harness diverging portion by means of the binding band.
The binding band according to the present invention, in which the wire harness diverging portion includes a trunk portion formed by gathering plural wire harnesses and a branch portion branching from the trunk portion, comprises:
a bendable band body,
plural bendable branch portions successively formed so as to be integrated with a base end portion of the band body,
a lock portion disposed integrally with a tip of one branch portion among the plural branch portions, the lock portion having the piercing-engagement hole which makes the band body pierce in only one direction and prevents it from slipping off in an opposite direction, and
an endless ring portion disposed integrally with a tip of the other branch portion, which the band body pierces earlier than it pierces the piercing-engagement hole of the lock portion.
In the present invention, it is preferable that the lock portion and the ring portion are separated from each other. In this case, it is preferable that the ring portion can be overlapped with the lock portion in a stack condition. Moreover, it is preferable that the band body and the branch portion having the ring portion have bendability so as to be make it possible to wind around the trunk portion at the wire harness diverging portion.
The present invention can adopt a structure wherein the wire harness diverging portion is provided with the two-forked branch portions, which hold the branch portion, one of the branch portions is provided with the lock portion, and the other is provided with the ring portion.
The present invention may adopt a structure wherein the number of the branch portions is (N+1) when the number of the branch portions is N.
In the present invention, the band body may be provided with a stopper for each of the other members such as a vehicle body, devices or the like.
In the binding band having the above structures, the branch portion of the wire harness diverging portion is held between the branch portions. Then, the ring portions are overlapped with the lock portion by means of bending-deformation or the like of each branch portion. After the band body is wound around the outer periphery of the trunk portion of the wire harness diverging portion, the tip portion of the band body passes through the ring portion and the piercing-engagement hole of the lock portion in order, thereby stopping the tip of the band body inside the piercing-engagement hole through engagement so as to prevent it from slipping. As a result, the wire harness diverging portion can be kept in a binding state wherein it is surely and stably fastened.
According to the binding band having the above structures, a branch portion having the lock portion and another branch portion having the ring portion are successively and integrally disposed on a basal end of the band body. The branch portion of the wire harness diverging portion is held between the branch portions, and one band body is wound around the trunk portion of the wire harness diverging portion. The tip portion of the band body is passed through the ring portion and the piercing-engagement hole of the lock portion, which is overlapped with each other, in order.
So, compared with a conventional operation wherein two-rows band bodies are respectively passed through the lock portion so as to stop them through engagement, the present invention can easily expedite an operation for binding the wire harness diverging portion.
As mentioned above, according to the binding band shown in the present invention, the binding operation can be done only if one band body is passed through the piercing-engagement hole of one lock portion. Thus, conveniently, the present invention can easily expedite the operation for binding the wire harness diverging portion.